Chapter 626

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

When Liu Mei Qi went to throw out the trash, Wang Erhai went to the underground garage first.

He got in the car, started the engine, and warmed it up.

Smoking a cigarette while waiting for Liu Mei Qi to come over.

His feelings toward Liu Mei Qi were very complicated.

He both pitied Liu Mei Qi and hated Liu Mei Qi.

Pity made him feel protective, while hatred made him feel annoyed.

After waiting a good while, Liu Mei Qi still hadn't returned, and he couldn't help but curse:

"This stinking woman, she drags everything out!"

After smoking another cigarette, Liu Mei Qi finally arrived.

He was about to scold Liu Mei Qi.

But at that moment, just as Liu Mei Qi got into the passenger seat, she handed him some steamed buns.

"Here, eat."

Wang Erhai was stunned:

"What is this?"

Liu Mei Qi said coldly:

"Breakfast, isn't it? You said my cooking tastes bad, right? When I went to throw out the trash, I stopped by a breakfast shop and bought you some steamed buns. Those are from the breakfast shop, so you surely won't say they taste bad, will you?"

Wang Erhai was speechless, unable to say a word, only looking at Liu Mei Qi with a complicated expression.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there a fly on my face?"

Liu Mei Qi felt bewildered.

Then she urged him:

"Do you want them or not? If not, I'll eat them myself!"

Wang Erhai then silently took the steamed buns, lowered his head, and began eating.

"Sorry."

With several steamed buns stuffed in his mouth, Wang Erhai apologized to Liu Mei Qi indistinctly.

"What did you say?"

Liu Mei Qi didn't hear clearly.

"Nothing," Wang Erhai was unwilling to say it again, "these steamed buns are actually quite tasty."

Liu Mei Qi urged: "Hurry up and eat, we'll hit the road once you're done."

She also said:

"I've already planned it out; today we need to visit five housing developments."

Because they themselves worked in real estate brokerage and knew the ins and outs of the industry, this time they didn't have a Guangzhou broker show them around, but went directly to the sales departments of the developments themselves.

Many people online say that if you don't have a broker show you around and are identified as an individual visitor, you can't get the internal discount price and the price will be higher; that's just a rumor spread by brokers.

Just think about the logic behind it, and you'll know how low-class that lie is.

Brokers showing properties earn a commission; the wool comes from the sheep—who pays that commission? On the surface it's paid by the sales office to the broker, but actually it's definitely paid by the home buyer!

If you go view properties yourself and deal directly with the sales office, cutting out the broker as the middleman, how could the price possibly be higher?

But if you go view properties yourself, you need to prepare a strategy in advance: how to choose a house, how to recognize the salesperson's pitch, how to read the contract, how to negotiate—all of these require skill.

Wang Erhai and Liu Mei Qi worked in this line of business, so they understood all of this; they only needed to pick the properties they wanted to see and then drive there directly.

Around ten o'clock in the morning, they arrived at the first development.

It was a development in Tianhe District, priced at thirty-six thousand per square meter; a hundred-square-meter house would cost over 3.6 million in total.

The location was excellent; Tianhe District was Guangzhou's central urban area, with great appreciation potential, and there were public primary and junior high schools nearby.

The only drawback was the large shared area.

For a hundred-square-meter house, the usable area was only around seventy square meters, with the shared area taking up nearly thirty percent.

Wang Erhai and Liu Mei Qi viewed the model unit, asked about the price, then added the sales office salesperson on WeChat before heading to the next development.

The second development was also in Tianhe District, in Tianhe East near Huangpu, with slightly cheaper prices at just over thirty thousand per square meter, but the shared area was also large there, and the location wasn't as good.

Wang Erhai still only added the sales office salesperson on WeChat, then left.

"The shared areas in Guangzhou are all huge—it's just outrageous!"

On the way to the third development, Liu Mei Qi couldn't help but complain.

As a real estate broker herself, she couldn't help but complain about this damn shared area.

Before, when she wasn't buying a house, she hadn't thought anything of it.

Now that she was buying a house herself, seeing tens of square meters of shared area was shocking, and she felt this thing was scarier than a ghost.

It was a loophole in real estate policy, because you pay for the shared area and then also have to pay property management fees on it afterward—equivalent to double charging.

Actually it wasn't really a loophole, but an open benefit for developers; to be exact, it should be considered a tacit understanding in policy.

It felt like wolves colluding.

And all of this had to be borne by ordinary people.

"Guangzhou isn't like our small county town; in our small county town, if the shared area is too big, the locals really won't buy your houses. But in Guangzhou, as long as the location is good, there are schools, and it's near a subway entrance, forget twenty-plus percent shared area—even thirty percent shared area has people fighting to buy."

Wang Erhai sighed.

He had previously worked as an intermediary in Guangzhou and understood the local housing market to some extent.

Market supply and demand determine the positions of buyers and sellers.

Now real estate is booming, new commercial housing in the core zones of first-tier cities is in short supply, which also leads developers to act more recklessly and carry out more black-hearted operations.

Not only are shared areas large, but property fees, parking fees, and other expenses are also driven up.

Soon, they arrived at the third housing development.

They found the shared area here even worse.

This time they didn't even ask for the salesperson's WeChat, and left directly.

Immediately they went to Panyu District and looked at two housing developments, one in Qiaoxiang Bridge and one in University Town.

Houses in Panyu are cheaper than those in Tianhe, but in Liu Mei Qi's view, Panyu is too remote.

Wang Erhai, however, felt that the University Town development was not bad.

"Two hundred seventy-eight thousand one hundred square meters, the price is acceptable, and University Town has a good environment, why don't we consider it?"

Wang Erhai looked at the houses near the South Station subway entrance of University Town and developed an interest.

Liu Mei Qi, however, didn't like it very much:

"Too remote, University Town is an island, getting out is very troublesome, look how long it took us to drive in and circle around to get in."

Liu Mei Qi also said:

"Besides, the price isn't cheap either; the houses in Xinzao across the river are less than twenty thousand, but here it's nearly thirty thousand."

In terms of price, the University Town development is indeed much more expensive than surrounding developments.

But Wang Erhai felt it was worth that price, after all, University Town has ten universities and one prestigious high school, and also has kindergartens and primary schools.

The subway entrance is just one or two hundred meters away.

This price is really acceptable.

"I think University Town is quite good, why not just buy in University Town?" Wang Erhai said thus, he didn't want to waste time looking anymore.

If it's too expensive, the price can be negotiated down.

Grinding it out will definitely lower it somewhat.

Liu Mei Qi, however, said:

"Look some more, don't rush to decide."

At this moment Wang Erhai suddenly thought of a very important matter:

"By the way, Tianhe and Panyu are both restricted-purchase zones, it seems we don't have home-buying qualifications..."